User:Benher

Japanese Subculture and Counterculture articles
Wiki is chock full of stubs related to Japan's lesser known but extremely interesting sects of underground culture. Regrettably, many of the more "matured" articles still suffer from poor grammar, inaccuracies, and unobjective fanboyism. I have lived and worked in and around the Japanese underground since 2002 and hope to use my experience in this country to enrich the knowledge contained in these entries.

I am especially interested in the Japanese tattoo or irezumi, the yakuza, bousouzoku and Japanese bike/car culture, all aspects of otaku and mania, politics of the nationalistic Japanese right wing, the history of post-modern Japan, Japanese art from modern day urban graffitti and stenciling to Ukiyo-e woodblock prints of the edo period, and the unique and perverse world of Japanese fetishism.

The Comic Market FAQ
Ever since I heard about comiket on a shoddy 3rd generation videotape in the late 80's, I knew I had to go and see it for myself. At the time "manga" and "anime" were not nearly the household words that they are now in America, let alone "doujinshi," so it was pretty much an uphill climb. And it was worth it. In an effort to make this process easier for others, I decided to write The Comic Market FAQ. There are no "professionals" per se in the world of doujinshi, and thusly I am by no means an expert. However, if by my experience and advice I can help a person to come and enjoy Comic Market... well, that's all I want. I currently live and work in Japan and have been to CM as well as many other smaller doujinshi conventions around Japan. Check out my homepage.

Mission
My purpose for contributing is to acquaint the average gaijin (read: foreigners; non-Japanese people or people with little to no Japanese language skills) with Japan's (and thusly the world's) largest comic convention: Comic Market. It may not be 100% complete, but I hope that it is accurate and helpful to any future would-be CM attendees.

Disclaimer about my contributions to Wikipedia
I wrote my original CM FAQ for fun. I wrote it to help people. I didn't write it to get into debates, fights, flames, or any similar petty undertaking. That being said, I make no promises about the accuracy or effectiveness of neither this FAQ nor the information herein. Naturally, I hope that it has a positive effect and that the information in it is as accurate at possible.